'Relatively advanced' talks on shipyards sale

Talks with the Italian shipyard Palumbo SpA on the sale of the ship repair section of Malta Shipyards are in a "relatively advanced stage," Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has said in Parliament. He did not reply to a question on when the talks are likely to be concluded.
Palumbo S.p.A., a shipyard based in Naples, was identified as the preferred bidder last September.
Palumbo has been involved in ship repair and ship conversion since 1967. It has floating docks in Naples and a 70,000 ton dry dock in Messina.
The privatisation process has seen the facilities of Malta Shipyards divided into four - the ship repair yard in Cospicua, the former Marsa shipbuilding yard, the superyachts facility in Cospicua and Manoel Island Yacht Yard.